This is my repository of some of the articles and academic papers I have written since 2007 on just about any topic under the sun. They are mostly SEO and product review articles, blog posts, commentaries, research term papers and dissertations. Feel free to use them for your purposes.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Here is a partial thesis I made for a client with the initials L.L. who couldn't put together what he wanted in the paper and relied entirely on my judgement.

This paper
explores the impact to stigma associated with having mental illness on active military
personnel on their private and work lives. The social and psychological cost of
suffering of the condition effectively places the combat-fatigued service
member in double jeopardy as he or she suffers from the ailment while having to
cope with a devalued place in society occasioned by the stigma society has cast
on them (Corrigan & Watson, 2002).

US Military
service personnel have this fear that consulting a psychologist or a psychiatrist
will push down their prospects for career advancement in the military.
According to Navy Commander, Anthony Arita, PhD., this needless fear revolving
around their psychological or mental
problems being exposed to their superiors have occasioned significant worry
that it could compromise their security clearances, prospects for promotion
andeven result in service dismissal
(Dingfelder, 2009).Dingfelder (2009) in
said that Arita, the director of clearinghouse, outreach and advocacy at the
Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain
Injury said: "There is the perception that if I do step forward there will
be dire consequences" (Dingfelder, 2009, para. 4).Such
fears are unfounded according to military experts, but they nevertheless have
fueled what amounts to a mental health crisis in the US military, where nearly a
fifth of service members returning from recent regional conflicts and wars such
as in Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with symptoms of major
depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.Only about half of the returning service members with such issues have
sought treatment, according to a study by Rand Corp (2008).

This is
around 300,000 service members with combat-induced mental health issues, says
Terri Tanielian, who had co-authored with psychologist Lisa Jayrox, PhD a study
which estimated that apart from the human cost, the nation can expect military
personnel with mental illness to cost nearly $6.2 billion in direct medical
care and lost productivity within the first two years after a traumatic combat
duty.This reality has not escaped
military leaders, who rightfully worry that such invisible war damages could
diminish the competence of the nation’s fighting force already stretched thin.

Dingfelder
(2009) observed that just about all the military agencies are now involved in
their own wars fighting the stigma of seeking mental health services. For instance,
the Defense Department recently revised its security clearance questionnaire so
that people who seek mental health care for combat-related reasons do not have
to report it. It is interesting to note that prior to this revision, when soldiers filled out security-clearance
questionnaires, they were almost always told to just reply "no" to the
dreaded Question 21 which asked: “In the last seven years, have you consulted
with a mental-health professional or consulted with another health-care
provider about a mental health condition” (Arnews,2008)This is considered the appropriate answer when the soldier is receiving mental
health counseling to deal with stress resulting from combat or to family and
marriage issues.A “no” should also be
the answer if the mental health counseling was not ordered by any court as a
result of violence.This advice was
contained in an All Army Activities (ALARACT) message guidance issued by Army
G2 security division until an updates SF 82 questionnaire can be issued with a
more appropriate working for question 21.

It had to
take two US Army generals who candidly share their post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) experiences in April 2009 for the Department of Defense (DoD)
in the following month to launch a service-wide anti-stigma campaign to prompt
ordinary military personnel to admit and recount their respective stories of
seeking mental healthcare (Dingfelder, 2009).It reportedly cost the military $2.7 million; but that is just a drop in
the billion dollar budget of the armed forces.

After all
these decades of hiding behind the stigma, this can be considered a historic
effort that could finally defangthe
societal stigma associated with seeking psychiatric or mental health care in the
American cultural landscape, according to Mark Bates, PhD, interim director of the
resilience and prevention directorate at the Defense Centers of Excellence
(DCoE). He further stated that "what we are trying to do is bring home the
message that physical health is just as important as mental health. We're
creating mental health parity in the military" (Dingfelder, 2009, para. 9).

Followers

About Me

Semi-retired since 2009 and now working as a freelance photo editor/colorist and online writer. Started out as an avionics mechanic at Philippine Airlines, transferred to its Marketing and IT departments before becoming the MIS head for Citadel Holdings. Then went on to become BPO Mobilization Manager at Accenture and finally Business Development Director at an Ads agency.